Tuesday, November 1, 2011

A MadCAAP Trick or Treat

Although I am not a big fan of Halloween, this year when one of my adopted "kids" said, "Why don't we go trick or treating and collect canned goods for needy people?" What an amazing idea!

I told a group of high school students to just meet at my house and we would canvas as many houses as we could in the trick-or-treat hours. The group you see in the picture above started in our neighborhood. I drove my van around as they divided up into little groups and went from house to house. As they gathered cans they would put them into the back of the van. I loved seeing their faces as they came back from collecting cans.

We started at 6:00 and finished about 8:30. That seems like a lot of time, but it really isn't when you are walking from house to house knocking on doors and waiting on people to find canned goods for you. It did not seem like we were able to go a lot of houses; however, we were really excited about the number of cans we were able to collect. One sweet man didn't have any canned goods but gave us a monetary donation. So sweet!

We are donating our canned goods to MadCAAP. MadCAAP is the Madison Countians Allied Against Poverty. Last year they prepared 750 Thanksgiving meal boxes for needy families in Madison County (where we live). This year they are planning for at least that many again. The deadline to have these boxes completed is November 14. Their needs list to finish these boxes consist of:

cans of corn

boxes of instant potatoes

cans of sweet potatoes

boxes of stuffing mix

donations to cover the cost of turkey and rolls

Here is the link to MadCAAP If you live in Madison County, you can make a PayPal donation through their link while you are there.

If you don't live in Madison County, I am sure that there is an organization very much like MadCAAP in your community who is preparing for Thanksgiving and could use your generous donations right now too.